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Here is what we will be focusing on in Term 1, 2018

General:

Learning Centre
- We visit the learning centre every Monday. Please make sure your child returns his/her books on this day.


Worth knowing
- Daily Reading and any other learning/information will be recorded in your child's yellow 'Home Reading' book (placed in his/her book-bag). This needs to be returned to class EVERY day, please.


Learning with ICT
- Every student have an ePortfolio (Individual Student Blog) This is a place for each student in the class to document their learning through writing and work samples. It is a digital portfolio and 'real-time' reporting to you as parents.
- Our Class Blog has been created to help keep parents/whānau and caregivers informed about what is happening in our class. It is just one more way to strengthen our class' home - school connection.
Please visit these regularly and leave comments.
- Students will work on their Individual Learning Plan (ILP) which is specific to learning needs and strengths. Please let them access this at home as well.


Swimming
- We will be swimming on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in our school pool. Please ensure your child bring his/her togs and towel.

English:

Reading (Guided)
We will practice our reading skills. Asking and answering questions from text. In addition to that we will learn our 'Caterpillar' words, Early Words and Essential Spelling Lists.

Info for parents about Year 1 Reading

In your child’s first year at school you will become familiar with the reading colour wheel. The wheel is made up of 9 different colours that show your child’s progress on their way to becoming a strong reader. They will begin by reading simple books at the magenta level and progress up through the colours. In their reading they will not just learn to read words but to understand, and talk about the stories they read.
If your child has met the Reading Standard after one year at school they'll be able to:

• read books at green level on the colour wheel
• show they have understood the story and talk about what they have read

How can parents/whānau help with reading at home? (via EDUCATION.govt.nz)

Make reading fun
Reading at home should be fun and easy – something you both look forward to - a time for laughter and talk.

• Share the reading, take turns or see whether your child wants to read or be read to today
• All children like to be read to, so keep reading to them. You can read in your first language
• Visit the library together and help them choose books to share
• Read emails from family or whānau aloud
• Play card and board games together.

Here's a tip - talk a lot to your child while you are doing things together. Use the language that works best for you and your child.
Talk about reading

• Talk about pictures in books
• Sing waiata and songs, read poems and make up rhymes together – the funnier the better
• Be a role model. Let your child see you enjoying reading and talk about what you are enjoying
• Point out words on signs, shops and labels
• Play word games like "I Spy" and "Simon Says…"

Make it a special time together
Reading is a great chance for you and your child to spend special time together. Make reading:

• quiet and relaxing
• a time to sit close to your child
• 10–15 minutes without interruption, away from the TV
• an enjoyable, interesting and special time
• a time to praise your child for making an effort

Here's some tips -
If your child is stuck on a word wait a few seconds, give them a chance to think. If they are still stuck, help them to try to work the word out by saying "read the sentence again and think what would make sense". Ask "could it be…?" (and give a word that might fit). The pictures also help them check they have got the right word. If they still can’t work out the word, tell them and praise their efforts. Remember, reading should be fun.
Help your child to link stories to their own life. Remind them about what they have done when a similar thing happens in the story.

Oral language
Practice to become confident speakers. Asking and answering deeper questions.

Writing
Punctuation, sentence structure and personal writing. In addition, we will practice our handwriting.

Info for parents about Year 1 Writing

In Year 1 your child will learn to write simple stories on their own. They will learn to plan their writing by talking, or by drawing pictures. Their writing will be for different purposes that cover several areas of the curriculum. For example, they may write about caring for a pet (science) or a report on a visit to a factory (technology). They will be able to read and talk about what they have written.
If your child has met the Writing Standard after one year at school they'll be able to:

• plan what they want to write by talking, drawing or perhaps writing word ideas
• write about their experiences and ideas and give information
• link their story to everyday experiences
• use many words they know from their reading

How can parents/whānau help with writing at home? (via EDUCATION.govt.nz)

Make writing fun

• Help your child write an alphabet letter, then go letter hunting in your house or in a book to find that letter
• Let your child see you writing – you can use your first language
• Encourage them to write shopping lists or make birthday cards
• Water and a paintbrush on a dry path and a stick on sand are fun ways to write letters and words.

Here's a tip - Don’t worry if your child’s letters or words are sometimes backwards or misspelt at this age. The important thing is that they have fun writing at home and are making an effort.
Give them reasons to write

• Write to each other. Write notes to your child and leave them in interesting places, like their lunch box. Ask them to write a reply
• Help them email, text or write to family, whānau or friends
• Work with them to put labels on special things – like the door to their room or their toy box.

Here a tip - display their work. Put it on the fridge. Be proud of it. Share it with others.
Talk about their writing

• Talk about the letters in your child’s name and where the name comes from.
• Help them create a scrapbook with pictures. Encourage them to write stories under the pictures and talk to you about them.
• Ask them to write about pictures they draw - on paper or on the computer. Or get them to tell you the story and you write it under the picture.

Here's a tip - talk about what your child writes. Be interested. If you don’t understand what your child’s picture or story is about, ask them to tell you about it.
Encourage writing

• Have felt pens, pencils, crayons and paper available
• Put magnetic letters on the fridge – ask what words they can make with the letters.

Phonological and Phonemic awareness
Parent Resources from Five from Five

Mathematics:

Number: Strategies & Knowledge
Adding and subtracting (Solve problems, using counting, say, read and write numbers)
Count to 20/50/100.
Count in 2's; 5's; 10's.
Count backwards from 10; 20; 30

Geometry and Measurement
Measurement (order and compare objects or events by length, area, volume and capacity, weight [mass], turn [angle], temperature, and time by direct comparison and/or counting whole numbers of units)


Info for parents about Year 1 Mathematics
In Year 1 your child will learn about numbers, algebra (symbols), geometry (shapes), measurement and statistics. They will learn to count on their fingers and by using objects. They may start to count in their heads and begin to recognise number patterns like 3+2=5.
If your child has met the Mathematics Standard after one year at school they'll be able to:

• solve maths problems up to 10, then up to 20
• count forwards and backwards up to 20, then up to 100.
• know the number before and after any given number
• explore patterns, shapes and measurement
• organize and share objects
• talk about position – eg “I am in front of the tree”, “I am behind you”.
• ask and answer questions – eg “How many chairs are in the classroom?

How can parents/whānau help with mathematics at home? (via EDUCATION.govt.nz)

Talk together and have fun with numbers and patterns
Help your child to:

• find numbers around your home and neighbourhood – clocks, letterboxes, speed signs
• count forwards and backwards (clocks, fingers and toes, letterboxes, action rhymes, signs)
• make patterns when counting "clap 1, stamp 2, clap 3, stamp 4, clap 5…"
• do sums using objects such as stones or marbles eg 2 + 3, 4 +1, 5 + 4
• make up number stories – "you have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. There are 4 of them"

Here's a tip - maths is an important part of everyday life and there are lots of ways you can make it fun for your child.
Use easy, everyday activities
Involve your child in:

• preparing and sharing out food – "two for me and two for you". Ask, "How many for each of us?"
• talking about time – "lunchtime", "storytime", "bedtime"
• using words in everyday play like "under", "over", "between", "around", "behind", "up", "down", "heavy", "light", "round", "circle", "yesterday", "tomorrow". You can get library books with these words and ideas in them too
• asking questions like "How many apples do we need for lunches? What do you think the weather is going to be like today/tomorrow? What are we going to do next?"

Here's a tip - use lots of mathematics words as your child is playing to develop their understanding of early mathematics (eg "over", "under", "first, second, third", "round", "through", "before", "after"). Use the language that works best for you and your child.

Inquiry:

Social Science - Community (People) - Marae


Big Ideas:
- What is our Story?
- How do we Belong?


Key understandings:
- All cultures are valued equally
- All people develop a sense of self through knowing where we come from
- The role of Maori as tangata whenua is significant in New Zealand
- When people possess a strong sense of belonging they feel valued for the positive contributions they offer
- We live in a diverse world and all languages and cultures are to be treasured
- Te Reo Maori is unique to New Zealand and is a source of our nation’s self-knowledge and identity



Students will:
- Understand how belonging to groups is important for people
- Understand how places in our community are significant for individuals and groups
- Understand how the cultures of people in our community are expressed in their daily lives

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During your child’s time at school they will develop a range of skills and capabilities (key competencies) that will help them to do well in life. The world is different these days. It’s an exciting time for children to grow up in. It’s not enough for children to just keep learning more information at the expense of learning how to use that information and work with others. As well as learning about a variety of subjects, children need to learn how to learn, how to think for themselves, think alongside others, and be motivated to keep on learning throughout their lives - so that they can do well in their world. Key competencies help your child learn these things. The key competencies are:



Thinking
Broadlands School teachers will give your child support to practice different types of thinking, like:

• meta-cognition - this is thinking about thinking itself. An example can be your child being encouraged to reflect on what they are doing, how that helps their learning, and what they can do differently to improve their learning
• mathematical and logical thinking
• knowing how to find out some of the ways we think that are not helpful (such as assuming something is true just because you’ve seen a few examples)
• cause and effect thinking - sometimes this involves exploring how different actions cause changes that can be predicted or understanding what actions in the past caused a change to happen
• mindfulness (being more aware of how our habits and feelings are influencing how we think and act)
• understanding how some patterns of thinking can lead to problems (e.g. the difficulty people have in making decisions about risk or how stereotypes stop us from understanding a situation)
• self knowledge of our own strengths and passions

Things to try at Home:

• Talk to your child about how thinking is important to make sense of everything they do at school and at home.
• If you can, find out about the language/thinking strategies your child’s school uses for thinking strategies and different ways of thinking, so that you can notice and reinforce these at home.
• Notice and praise your child when they use different sorts of thinking, like mathematical and logical thinking, or knowing how to find flaws in thinking (such as assuming that something is true based on a few examples)
• Make it fun. Playful thinking is a great way of building the brain and your child’s thinking abilities. Games of all types - make believe, imaginary friends, “what if” flights of fancy, and so on all provide opportunities for playful thinking.

Using Language, Symbols and Texts
There are many examples of this key competency in action at Broadlands School, like:

• literacy – reading and writing
• maths – where numbers and symbols communicate ideas
• dance, drama and kapa haka – where your child is learning about movement as a language, or way of communicating
• science – where your child is learning how to think, read and write in scientific language, investigating, gathering evidence, drawing conclusions and justifying explanations

Things to try at Home:

• Check whether your child understands the meaning in different types of texts or languages. If they tell you that something “is” so, ask them how they know, or what makes them think that. This can help them think about other possibilities, which is what the teachers do at school as well.
• When you flick though the junk mail or watch television together, talk about the language the advertisers have used to make you want to buy their products. Encourage your child to think about how the language makes the advertising claims believable, and what information they leave out and what that also tells us.
• Comment when you see a symbol used in a new way, or the same symbol used to mean different things in different contexts. Talk about who might have “invented” each use, and why. For example, the @ sign so widely used now for email addresses used to mean “and the cost is” – for example, “three packages @ $2 = $6 total”. A slightly different example is the morphing of a tick symbol into the Nike “swoosh” as a positive branding strategy.

Managing Self
Your child will get better at managing self as they develop a good understanding about how they learn. Examples of managing self are:

• working to complete an activity or project by a deadline, and to a certain standard
• setting a challenging goal with help from the teacher, and then working towards it independently
• being willing to take learning risks, try new things, make mistakes, learn from them, and try again
• your child understanding how their ideas and skills are changing over time and why they think, act and respond in the way they do
• understanding that it’s okay to make mistakes – they are an essential and important part of learning – so your child doesn’t give up when school becomes difficult
• understanding that sometimes there is no one “right” answer, and that you have to make decisions even when you don’t have perfect information (you then need to be aware of how those decisions are working out and be willing and able to change tack as you gain information).

Things to try at Home:

• Notice and comment when children do regular chores or homework without having to be prompted. This shows them that you value their independent self-management.
• Talk about the challenges of learning, not just about what has been learned, and show them that you are always learning as well.
• Don’t let children make excuses when the going gets hard, or worse, make those excuses for them. For example, instead of saying, “Maths is too hard. I was useless at it and so are my kids”, try something like “Maths is really hard but we’re working at it together”.

Relating to Others
Broadlands School teachers develops this key competency by doing things like:

• providing opportunities to work in different groups on tasks where different points of view can be heard, thought about, and acted on
• In a technology class, a group of children working on developing a product will need to think about the needs of a range of users
• In English, using a novel that has characters from a different era or country, and encouraging the children to think about why different people think and behave as they do in the story

Things to try at Home:

• Talk openly about different ways of “being” in the world. Compare the different cultures in your life, so you can talk about what’s right in different contexts, and why. If you model respect, children are more likely to show it too.
• Play the “devil’s advocate” from time to time. It is great for children to practice seeing things from different perspectives and to understand that respectful debate is healthy.
• Think about how well you listen to, and negotiate with your children. Your child learns how to relate to others from you.

Participating and Contributing
Broadlands School teachers foster this key competency by:

• Leadership opportunities that your child is given, in class, or in the wider school. For example, being a reading buddy to a junior child, maintaining a worm farm, helping to organise a fundraiser for the school
• And, even, through ‘simple’ things like asking children to work with a wide range of class mates and guiding them to understand what makes working together successful and how they can do it even better.

Things to try at Home:

• You might be surprised at which parts of your knowledge and skills would be welcomed by the teachers as they work to build more “authentic’ learning for students. For example, in schools where students are learning how to grow food, adults with gardening skills are likely to be able to help.
• Encourage your child to take part in things they haven’t tried before. This challenges them and gets them involved in new activities and groups. Talk to them about the new skills and knowledge they gain.
• Support your child when they take on leadership roles at school or in the community. This could be something as simple as being the recycling monitor for a week, caring for a class pet over the holidays, looking after younger students during breaks or at a sports day, taking care of equipment or resources, speaking during an assembly – schools are usually really good at providing varied opportunities for students to step up and take a lead for a time.

Respect		Co-operation		Responsibility		Kindness		Honesty
Courage		Perseverance		Helpfulness		Tolerance
Self-discipline		Confidence		Excellence		Reliability		Caring
Creativity		Loyalty		Courtesy		Friendliness		Justice

Para nuestro amigo español - For our Spanish friend